


The Screaming Pod

by hybridempress



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Diabetes, Gen, Guns
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-21
Updated: 2015-08-21
Packaged: 2018-04-16 12:30:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,499
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4625430
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hybridempress/pseuds/hybridempress
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's business as usual during the infamous World Meeting. That is, until Alfred's insulin pod starts malfunctioning.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Screaming Pod

**Author's Note:**

> This story features Alfred having type 1 diabetes and using an OmniPod as his insulin pump. This is a very short story, with the main focus being on Alfred's pump malfunctioning, so the other aspects of the disease won't be covered. I myself have type 1 diabetes and this story is based off of a semi-common defect that has happened to the majority of OmniPod users at least once (for myself it's happened twice).
> 
> That being said, I apologize if any of you are confused about anything that's going on, but if you have any questions, feel free to ask me!! I'll answer them ASAP. I hope you guys enjoy the story!!

    Alfred sat in his usual chair with his feet kicked up on the table, his left leg crossed on top of the right. His arms were folded behind his head and rested against the back his chair. He stretched himself out, tipping his chair up on its back legs, just relaxing. He had a while before anyone else got there.   
  
    The World Meeting was being held in his country this time around. As such, he was the first nation to arrive in the meeting room. He estimated that everyone else wouldn't start arriving for at least another half hour. He had time to take a nap or just generally screw around before anything important happened.   
  
    Despite the fact that the meeting was being held in his home, Alfred didn't get to sit at the front of the table. He really wanted to. He'd always wanted to be the leader of a World Meeting. Just once, it would have been cool to have everybody listening to him. Sure, he had usually tried to take over the Allied Meetings back in WWII, but that never really worked out.   
  
    Truthfully, it probably never would have worked out now, either. They hardly ever got anything done at these stupid meetings, even though Ludwig was always in charge. But at least when Ludwig was in charge they always got  _something_  done, even if it wasn't much.   
  
    Naturally, being in charge of the meeting and all, Ludwig was the second to arrive after Alfred, and he was twenty minutes earlier than Alfred had expected. When Alfred heard the door of the meeting room open, he quickly pulled his feet down from the table and propped his elbows up on it instead. He laced his own fingers together and rested his chin on the tops of his knuckles, assuming a completely responsible position. He couldn't have Ludwig thinking that he had just been napping in his chair, right?  
  
    "Morning, Germany!" Alfred greeted as the stoic nation walked to the front of the table and sat down in his regular chair, setting the briefcase he had been carrying on top of the table. He nodded towards the younger nation in acknowledgment.   
  
    " _Ja, guten morgen, Amerika,_ " he said in response.   
  
    After that, there was silence between them. It wasn't really awkward, though. They were used to it. They just never really had much to say to each other. Neither of them really knew how to start up a conversation.   
  
    Thankfully, a few minutes later, the other nations began to arrive. The doors were kept open now, as a new nation was walking through them every other minute. It was only a matter of time before the entire meeting room was filled. Every nation had taken their seats. It looked like everyone was here today. Alfred was pleased.   
  
    "Alright, it looks like everyone is here, but I suppose we ought to do a roll call just to make sure..." Ludwig said once the meeting room had been filled and the doors were shut.   
  
    He opened his briefcase and pulled a few pieces of paper that had been stapled together out of it. He shut his briefcase and began reading names off of the pieces of paper, waiting for each nation to respond to their name when it was called. He pulled a pen out of the pocket on the front of his shirt and crossed off each name as it was responded to.   
  
    By the time he had made it to the end of the list, he found that everyone was indeed present and accounted for. There was no one missing, and no one extra. Everything was in order to start the meeting.   
  
    "Now, since everyone's here, I suppose we can get started. Our first order of business is..."   
  
    Of course, it was at this point that most countries tended to tune Ludwig out until their ears picked up something that was of interest to them. However, you could never tell which countries weren't listening, because all of them had mastered the art of pretending to be completely engrossed with what Ludwig had to say. They'd all been yelled at one too many times by the German personification when he thought that they weren't listening to him.   
  
    The meeting proceeded on as normal. No one made any contribution to what Ludwig had to say until he explicitly called upon someone and asked them if they had something to add. He then made sure to stare into the deepest part of their soul until they gave him a valid answer. Of course, as soon as that certain country (who happened to be France this time) said whatever was on their mind, there was a backlash from at least one other country (we're looking at you here, England).   
  
    Once two countries started fighting each other, it was only a matter of time before everyone was picking sides and arguing with each other. There was an endless amount of yelling and slamming fists on tables and shaking papers at each other. Ludwig tried calmly to get everyone to settle down, but as that didn't work, it would only be a matter of time before he lost his temper and unleashed an unholy roar that would scare the ever living shit out of everyone within a five mile radius.  
  
    Sometime within all of this mess, another loud noise joined the fray. It wasn't another voice or crude gesture or the sound of anything being thrown around. It was a loud and very shrill beep that everyone in the meeting room could hear, despite the other noises that were bombarding them.   
  
    The sound in question was once again nothing unusual to any of the nations present, and they didn't pay much attention to it. They continued to argue with each other despite the ringing that the beeping caused in their ears. The beep was, in fact, coming from Alfred's insulin pod, and everyone knew that that meant it had just expired.   
  
    "Hold up a sec guys, I gotta take care of this," Alfred said, quickly reaching into the pocket of his bomber jacket and pulling out his PDM, along with a small vial of Novolog insulin and a small packet that contained an extra insulin pod inside of it.   
  
    He placed all of this on the table before turning his PDM on and pressing the button on it to deactivate his expired pod. He held the PDM close to the pod that was attached to his stomach and waited for it to stop the beeping on his expired pod. After a few seconds, the PDM gave two beeps to signify that it had deactivated the expired pod and that Alfred could put a new one on. There was just one problem with that. The expired pod still wouldn't stop beeping.   
  
    Alfred furrowed his brows, partially in confusion and partially in concern. This wasn't supposed to happen. His pods always stopped beeping after he deactivated them. Why hadn't this one worked? Why was it still beeping?  
  
    Frantically, Alfred started searching through the options on his PDM, trying to see if there was some way that he could redo the deactivation process. He couldn't find anything. Even when he had asked the PDM to activate a new pod, the old one refused to stop beeping. It wasn't long before the other nations noticed that Alfred was taking a lot longer than usual to take care of his diabetes problem.   
  
    Ludwig pinched the bridge of his nose, visibly agitated. As if the yelling of the other nations around him wasn't enough, that damn beeping was starting to give him a migraine. He couldn't understand why Alfred hadn't turned it off yet.   
  
    "America, will you  _please_  turn that goddamn beeping off!?" Ludwig demanded, removing his hand from his face and turning his head to glare at Alfred, which made the younger nation flinch.   
  
    "I-I'm trying, man, I'm trying! I don't know what's happening! I already deactivated it, I don't know why it won't turn off!" Alfred shouted frantically, desperately pulling his shirt up and peeling the pod's adhesive off of his skin.   
  
    He held the screaming pod in his hands and stared at it until Ludwig stood up and reached across the table to grab it from him. Ludwig sat back down and examined it all over, trying to find a reset button or any clue as to how to turn it off. He could find nothing. It was just a plastic pod. There were no openings, and no writing telling you what to do if it wouldn't turn off.   
  
    By now, the other nations had noticed that there was clearly something wrong with Alfred's pod, especially since Ludwig thought it was important enough to examine. Slowly, small groups of nations began to stand up from their chairs and flock over to Ludwig, trying to see what was wrong and find out if they could help. Alfred, who was thoroughly embarrassed by the whole situation, sunk back into his chair and stared at the table, not knowing what else to do.   
  
    "There has to be some way to turn it off... You can't tell me this has never happened to you before, America," Ludwig said, closing his fist around the pod because he had found that that at least would muffle the sound, and looking at Alfred.  
  
    Alfred shook his head, looking at Ludwig desperately. "I swear, it's never happened before! I don't know what to do!" he exclaimed.   
  
    "Is Alfred really the only nation here who has diabetes? There has to be someone else here who knows what to do," Ludwig said, glancing around the room to look to the other nations for help. No one spoke up.   
  
    "Hey, Canada knows a lot about diabetes, right? I mean, his country invented synthetic insulin, and he's America's brother. He's got to know what to do!" Gilbert exclaimed, glancing towards the quiet nation, who was standing next to Alfred now.   
  
    "H-hey, what're you calling  _me_  out for!? I've got as good a clue how to stop it as Alfred does!" Matthew said, waving his hands in front of him as if to surrender.   
  
    "Oh, give me that," Arthur grumbled, reaching forward and snatching the pod from Ludwig. "I'll just cast a spell on it and send it to Hell. It might not shut the damn thing off, but at least we won't be able to hear it," he suggested.   
  
    "Are you kidding me? That's not gonna work, little brother. Hell is wherever you are!" Alistair shouted teasingly from where he was still sitting towards the back of the room, followed by soft cackling.   
  
    Arthur's face grew flushed as he glared at his brother from across the room. "Sod off, Alistair! Nobody asked for your bloody opinion and I don't see you trying to help us!" he shouted back.  
  
    Alistair rolled his eyes. "Relax, laddie, I was only joking," he said.   
  
    Arthur huffed in annoyance before walking towards an emptier part of the room. "Now, I'm going to need your help with this, everyone. First, I'm going to need some candles. Someone else is also going to have to get me some salt. I'll have FMB bring me my spell book..."  
  
    " _Nein! Nein, nein, nein!_  We don't have time for this ridiculousness! We've got a meeting to finish! There has to be a better way to shut it off!" Ludwig shouted, standing up from his chair again.   
  
    "Maybe I can give it beating with my pipe,  _da?_ " Ivan inquired, walking over to where Arthur was and prying the pod from Arthur's hand, though he didn't get much resistance.   
  
    Ivan walked away from Arthur again and sat on the floor a little ways from where everyone else was standing. He set the pod down on the floor before reaching into his coat and pulling his signature metal pipe from it. In a matter of seconds, he was pounding away at the poor pod with his pipe in a vain attempt to get it to stop screaming.   
  
    Even after a relentless beating at the hands of Ivan and his pipe, the pod would still not shut up. By now, everyone seemed to think that this pod must be made out of steel instead of plastic. How else could it have survived an attack from Ivan?   
  
    Ivan, rather than looking shocked like everyone else did, seemed rather disappointed in himself. When he saw that the pod was still beeping, he frowned deeply and stuffed his pipe back into his jacket. He picked the pod up again, stood up, and brought it back to Ludwig.   
  
    "I am sorry, my friends. I could not get it to stop the beeping," he said sorrowfully.  
  
    "Oh, for Pete's sake!" Vash shouted, finally standing up from his own seat and walking over to Ludwig. "Let's just shoot it already!"  
  
    He snatched the pod from Ludwig before walking back over to his chair and grabbing the shotgun that he always brought with him to these meetings. He then began to walk towards the doors of the meeting room. Everyone else, including Alfred, got up to follow him.   
  
    Vash led the parade of nations through the building and outside to the grounds around it. Fortunately, the meeting building was pretty far away from the city and there wouldn't be many people around to see what was going on. Vash found a nice, grassy spot outside and behind the meeting building, and stopped walking.  
  
    "Alright everyone, stand back. The last thing we need today is someone getting shot in the face," Vash grumbled loudly. Everyone nodded and did as they were told, backing away from Vash slowly, but keeping their eyes trained on him.  
  
    Vash turned the safety off on his shotgun and cocked it. He held it facing the ground before turning to look at the group of nations behind him. He tossed the beeping pod back to Alfred, who caught it quickly despite not expecting it.   
  
    "Throw that as high and as far as you can for me,  _ja?_ " he asked.  
  
    "Uh... Right. Ready?" Alfred replied.  
  
    When Vash nodded, Alfred wound his arm back and pitched the screaming pod into the air as hard as he could. It flew at least 20 feet into the air and soared a good distance away from himself and the other nations. Vash took his aim and shot the pod directly as it started to descend. After the gunshot was heard, the beeping stopped. Vash's plan had worked.   
  
    "There. Now, can we get back to work?" Vash asked, turning the safety back on his gun.   
  
    There was a moment of semi-shocked silence before Ludwig finally cleared his throat to break it. " _Ja,_  I suppose we should get back to work," he replied.  
  
    "Thank God," Vash said, and began trudging back to the front of the building to get inside. The rest of the countries followed him once again, and once they were inside, their meeting resumed as if nothing had happened at all.


End file.
